Amen: "Steve Ditko is a giant of the industry. Surely the editors of The Comics Journal should have been wiser and devoted more space and energy to discussing his life and career?" [Silver Bullet Comics reviews TCJ #258]

Learn magic and thrill kill your friends! [$495 Magic Kit on sale to supervillains at VillainSupply.com]
The 30-day guarantee is void "if Dr. Strange gets word of what you're up to"- and be sure to check out the list of included thaumaturgical components like "powder of Jesus' foreskin". If you can't afford $12 million Canadian for Adamantium Steel Bones (note: inability of muscles to move and support metal-laden bones is not covered by the warranty), $1,800 gets you a Metal Dentition Upgrade (stainless steel teeth like Jaws from the James Bond movies). Funny site. Found via trolling recent All The Rage columns]

The Stax Report: Review of Bob Gale's 01986 Dr. Strange movie script [FilmForce]
Back by popular demand. Neilalien blogged this item back on 20 January 02001, when it lived on the now-defunct Flixburg site. It's been lost to linkrot for years- but Neilalien pal Dublog just spotted it in its new home. If you haven't read it yet, it's new to you.

It's a lot of fun, but it's also sad, because Jamie doesn't want to admit that it's Game Over for a diverse Direct Market. We lost. That's it. Move on.

Superhero costumes and vigilantism serve symbolic, mechanical, plot, and thematic purposes [Eve Tushnet via Unqualified Offerings with some more]
They are things not to be taken so literally. Interesting personal/public-nature-of-leadership angle too.

Month-to-month sales for DC, CrossGen, etc. for February 02004 [Pulse]

Release date for Spider-Man 2 moved up a couple days [ICv2]
What of Free Comic Book Day? Neilalien was a fence-sitting observer of the debate re: whether or not to align FCBD with this movie. He saw both sides. It's a positive to be connected with a big fat 'oustide world' promotional event, and it's a negative to change the date every year chasing the next big Marvel trademark cash-in. This release-date wiggle might highlight the risk/folly of aligning with a movie- but in this case, it's still essentially the same weekend- no harm no foul. The way Neilalien sees it, the big 'real' problems with FCBD still stand: (1) It's not like there's going to be an announcement or trailer before the Spider-Man movie that FCBD is even happening, and (2) July 4th weekend is when people leave town.

"For me, super-hero comics work because they are removed from our reality by multiple leaps of logic." [Forager]
Update: Near Mint Heroes reminds us that in Origins of Marvel Comics, Stan Lee calls comics "a remedy, a pictoral tonic to relieve the awesome affliction that threatens us all; the endlessly spreading virus of too much reality in a world that is losing its legends- a world that has lost its heroes"

Do superhero stories ask so much from their readers re: secret identities, costumes, superpowers, sidekicks, the fight formula, etc. that realism and suspension of disbelief are irredeemably lost? No. All kinds of fiction haven't been held back by asking a lot of their readers. Superhero conventions are well-known and absorbable, they haven't prevented plenty of interesting, thoughtful stories, and their assumptions are getting tweaked and taken to their logical conclusions all the time. Arguing about realism is like going apeshit over musicals when characters break into song.

90% of everything is crap. It goes for superhero stories- and it goes for art comix and manga too.

Superheroes are what have kept the comic book extant. If you think they've stopped anything else from succeeding, or have squeezed/driven out other genres: they haven't stopped manga.

Maybe superhero comic books have declined because they no longer have a monopoly on the popular superhero stories they tell so well.

Very neat essay. It's so sad that superheroes need all this defending, but alas, this stuff needs repeating. What if we had a movie industry in which 90% of films were musicals in boutique inaccessible theaters with zero marketing to 'the outside world'? Extremely bad news for the film industry and the art form of film, to be sure. But Neilalien imagines that people would be responding to that situation with vicious critical thinking about why the big studios only make musicals, why theaters only show musicals, movie distribution and marketing problems, ratings systems that killed off other genres fifty years ago, cultural and population shifts, etc., and all those other meta problems. Can't imagine that people would even waste their breath overdeconstructing the musical itself, the unrealistic singing, those unrealistic songs, the happy endings, blaming the musical for why there aren't any other movies, proposing that a second micro-niche like more musicals-with-x or art-house or Westerns is the answer, insulting the people who like musicals, brushing musicals aside as inherently unworthy of telling good stories, etc. But that's what we get in comicdom, and it has always felt like a big, big snob-feel-good miss when investigating the comic industry's problems.

Doc fans, be sure to check out Toyfare Magazine #81 when you're next in the comic shop. There's an amusing action-figure cartoon involving The Defenders and Dr. Strange on p. 94! Thanks to Wrong Dimension Boy for the FYI.

Gaudy night: Superhero stories and our own [Jim Henley at Brainwash]
Unqualified Offerings refines its concepts: (a) that the superhero story is not all that outlandish and inconceivable (given street gang names, volunteer fire departments, etc.), and (b) the literature of ethics. Via Franklin's Findings, who took a major step into the inner circle of the hoary host of Doctor Strange fans by picking up Strange Tales #110 this weekend.

Witches in June

Neilalien has zero info, folks- this was as much out of the blue to him as all y'all. But it's a great surprise for a book involving Doctor Strange that was essentially dead. Can't help but wonder what kind of reworking we're getting here, though. Remember when Jemas wanted changes made? Update: In fact, wait a minute: remember when Bronwyn Carlton was the writer?! [All The Rage from September 02001!! has it been that long?!]

And now we hear that Julie has been... discontinued? Cancelled? But they said the same about Green Lantern and the Flash back in the early 'fifties, so we can't be certain. This is comics. There'll be some way around it, be some parallel world Earth-Four Julie, born thirty years later to account for problems in the continuity, and decked out in a jazzier, more streamlined outfit.

Brian Hibbs with a lot of advice for publishers of trade paperbacks; how "waiting for the trade" typically plays out [Tilting At Windmills]

Neilalien's teleporters went awry this week and sent him to the exurbs of Washington, DC, near one of your planet's institutions dedicated to what you humans quaintly call "air and space". What else could he do except call up his buds Jim Henley and Eve Tushnet for some drinks? A great time was had by all.

Neilalien unfortunately for now will have to punt on the idea of building and editing a page of comic-book collective nouns, or just listing every single item he received. But this is where more items will be stored as he gets organized. Let's see some more!

He's been re-reading his Hellboy TPB's in anticipation of the movie, and not buying much lately. Here's a batch of some recent light fare:

The Escapist #1 [ADD]
Neilalien usually avoids anthologies like the plague (but obviously not cliches)- but this a great package, with a fun retro feel and Chabon's vision probably helps keep it all together. This website loves Starlin- but the Luna Moth story really doesn't fit with the rest of the book, and it really could have used a more interesting representation of Death. If you loved Chabon's novel or old-school comics, you'll enjoy this. Gene Colan's involved with the next issue.

She-Hulk #1 [Fourth Rail]
With Dr. Strange appearing in #2, Neilalien picked up #1 out of curiosity- and was pleasantly surprised! Pretty good. He agrees with this reviewer that the over-the-top She-Hulk isn't the favored characterization (although her having grown 'out-of-control' is central to the story, and a down-side is shown) (not that Neilalien has ever given a damn about She-Hulk), and that MODOK played for laughs is getting old. The art and coloring is absolutely gorgeous. Can't wait to see Doc in #2 now.

Stonehaven: Milk Cartons & Dog Biscuits OGN [Fourth Rail]
Neilalien pimped the ashcans of this book as among The Best of MoCCA 02003, and it's wonderful to see the graphic novel out and in color. Great job!

El Cazador #5 [Bloggity]
Still getting the pirate fix here, and giving CrossGen some cash to pay folks. The art is sweet. Really enjoying the dialogue. Story's good too, although it strikes one as quite modern-day politically-correct for the crew to object to the slaves only on the grounds that they have no sea-faring skills, and not because of racism. But perhaps that is a modern-day politically-correct observation in itself. Neilalien is wary of the Blackjack Tom spin-off [Fourth Rail positive review] but he might pick this up too.

Amazing Spider-Man #504
Can't call this a strong piece. The Spidey-Loki interaction was fun (they're both kinda tricksters, with Loki playing the Dr. Strange straight-man role), but the team-up still somehow fell short, and felt like a solo-Spidey cosmic or magic story that doesn't fit the character. Loki's a powerful ally- this tale wouldn't quell recent reader dissent that Spidey hasn't been threatened much lately. The magic battle was just energy blasts. The villain was far too one-dimensional to warrant all those powerful beings last issue noticing its presence. The Loki-daughter connection felt hokey- we needed to know more about her before she got abducted for that to work.

Human Target #7 [ADD]
This book is getting the cash freed up by Sleeper. The story-arc benefits from Neilalien recently seeing a Weather Underground documentary. Great art.

Neilalien is not buying that Coup D'Etat: Afterword. He read the Sleeper item in the shop.

Is there a Dr. Strange entry in that new Marvel Knights Encyclopedia? All the copies were shrinkwrapped.

The Comics Journal is looking for Julie Schwartz gossip (well, maybe he's the guy) [Lying In The Gutters] [A Distant Soil Message Board] [Franklin's Findings] [Bloggity]
For once, the phrase "dirty old man" appearing on this website doesn't refer to Stan Lee and Stipperella. "I got a call from the Comics Journal today, never a good thing."Update:The Hurting has an excellent must-read even-handed flawed-heroes truth-history position. But while Hurting "trusts" The Comics Journal, Neilalien and many others absolutely do not. TCJ relishes its iconoclastic "the magazine people love to hate" status too much nowadays for people to expect a classy resolution to this tentacle.

Neilalien scanners detect that one of his fave weblogs LinkMachineGo has also reached its fourth Blogday recently

A plethora of collective nouns have been received for parsing. If you think you have an idea that will win Neilalien's heart and this contest, let's see it!

Earlier this week, Neilalien was in one of his favorite little places in NYC, the vintage toy store Alphaville. This neat shop specializes in stuff much earlier than Neilalien's time, but even if it's not a personal trip down memory lane, it's still fun to check out how Mr. Potato Head used to look, and what people used to think space travel would be like.

But this time, among the Cooties and the lunch boxes, something slammed Neilalien in the head like a time machine. A selection of Presto Magix! Wow, he hasn't thought about these in almost 30 years. Anyone remember these? You'd get a big background, and then a plastic sheet of images to stick on the background with a pencil.

The Batman and Robin one, in particular, is one Neilalien vividly now re-remembers doing. Dated 01978. He picked it up. He seems to remember there was a Batcave one too. It's all coming back.

A sanctum of Doc fans. Email Neilalien some more ideas, or post them online somewhere. Let's brainstorm. You might get a No-Prize.

What is the collective noun for comic book fans? Has this been done already? A convention of comic book fans. Any good collective nouns for fans of other superheroes? A school of Aquaman fans. Any good collective nouns for fans of certain creators?

"Now that I stop to think about it... That's the dumbest disguise I've ever seen!" [Progressive Ruin]
Superman realizes that the Kryptonian plexiglass of his eyeglasses intensifies the super-hypnotic effect of his eyes, which is why the dumb Clark-Kent glasses disguise actually works. Laugh-out-loud.

Thursday, March 11 at 7 p.m. Did you know that Superman was actually the brainchild of two Jewish young men, writer Jerry Siegel and artist Joe Shuster? If you've visited CHS' Heroes, Heartthrobs and Horrors comics exhibit, you know that the All-American comic book has a rich history in Connecticut. The backstory gets even more fascinating with this venue that traces the timeline from the height of the Great Depression, and FDR's presidency to Hitler's emergence into power in Germany, sharing the story of Jewish heritage that is at the heart of the comic book's creative origin. Stand-up comedian and writer (MAD Magazine and Entertainment Weekly, among others) Arie Kaplan shares the Jewish experience and creative spark of so many Jewish writers and artists who entered the comic book field in its early years, excelling in one of the few arenas open to them without discrimination. Admission is $6 for adults; $3 for seniors, students and youths six to 17; FREE for CHS members. Please call (860) 236-5621, x238 to reserve seating.

Romita Jr. leaving Amazing Spider-Man [Newsarama]
Two more issues to #508 and then it's off to Punisher and Wolverine. Which means Neilalien will probably stop getting ASM, and he has zero interest in the other two characters.

Ladies and gentlemen, Howard Hallis' Dr. Strange Collection
This is the most comprehensive list of Doc-related things that Neilalien has ever seen. Wow. Excelsior! Howard's even got a book if the Marvel Value Stamp is Doc-related. That's sick. Anyway, he's asking "What am I missing?" on the Collector's Society Message Boards so feel free to go help him out. Neilalien spots that Top 10 #11 is not on the list [Top 10 #11 Notes, see pages 12-13 for all the doctors (Strange, Fate, Who, Doom, Manhattan, Fu Manchu, and the Authority member) in the hospital].

Good wrap-up of new Marvel moves [Lying In The Gutters]
As kid-friendly as possible, as Hollywood-safe as possible, costumes and straightforward superheroics return, variant covers and collectible marketing are back. And so the pendulum keeps on swingin'. At least the Marvel Knights and MAX imprints are still around. If ever there were any interesting risks taken for the adult enjoyers of Marvel characters, it's likely there won't be many more going forward.

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